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Summary of Terrorist Incidents and CT Operations: February 2013

05/04/2013
| by Database Desk

This monthly report has extensive coverage of incidents which took place in the Middle East, specifically pertaining to events in Syria. On 21 February, 83 people were killed and 200 injured, when a car bomb exploded next to the Ba'ath Party offices in Damascus. The majority of the casualties were civilians. Police and witnesses said the explosion occurred at a security checkpoint between the Russian embassy and the Ba'ath Party central headquarters. It was also reported that two mortars were fired at the military headquarters in Damascus shortly after the car bomb detonated and two other bombs exploded in the city. In addition, three bombs exploded in the suburb of Barzeh killing 22 people and injuring 50 others. No group claimed responsibility for the attack but authorities blamed the Al-Nusra Front to Protect the Levant group who had previously carried out similar attacks. Other Middle East countries discussed in the report include: Bahrain, Iraq, Israel and the West Bank, and Turkey.

In the USA, the report highlighted the involvement of four Somali immigrants who were convicted on 22 February in San Diego, California of conspiring to channel money to Al-Shabaab Al-Mujahedin in Somalia. The men coordinated fundraising efforts and sent approximately $9,000 to the organization between 2007 and 2008. Mohamed Mohamud, 40, used his connections as a popular imam at a mosque in San Diego's City Heights neighborhood to raise money for the group. The other defendants were two San Diego taxi drivers, Basaaly Saeed Moalin, 36, and Issa Doreh, 56, and Ahmed Nasir Taalil Mohamud,37, whose financial transfer business Shidaal Express was used to route the money. Moalin, Doreh and Mohamed Mohamud were convicted of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization and several counts of conspiracy. Nasir Mohamud was convicted of conspiracy and money laundering. Sentencing was scheduled for 16 May 2013.